A new series of IOM reports published today provide a unique insight into migration flows to, through and from the Black Sea Region, a vast track of land connecting nations in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The region is home to an estimated 350 million inhabitants, including some 23 million migrants.

The profiles, which detail migration patterns in 12 countries (Armenia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine), underline the fact that poverty and a lack of job opportunities are the main the main push factors for migration flows within and outside of the region.

It notes that limited opportunities for legal migration continue to fuel irregular migration, with the Black Sea region at the crossroad of several smuggling and trafficking routes towards the EU, such as the Eastern Mediterranean, the Central and Eastern European and the Balkan routes.

Human trafficking, within and from the region, remains one the biggest challenges that many of the Black Sea countries, such as Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, have to face.

The report details migration patterns within the region and especially towards the Russian Federation, which hosts more than 12 million migrants. These migrants are in particular Russian-speakers from the Commonwealth of Independent States who are either employed legally or not in the construction, trade and services sectors.

The report also looks at the role of remittances in the economic development of the region. Recorded at USD 26.7 billion in 2007, official remittances contribute significantly to the gross domestic product, with remittances to Moldova accounting for 36. 2 % of the country’s GDP.

However, the report states that more needs to be done to develop remittance-linked financial products for migrants, to reduce the cost of money transfers and to encourage diasporas to invest some of their remittances productively.

"The purpose of the migration profiles is to provide reliable and comparable migration data so as to strengthen the ability of national migration authorities in the region to effectively manage migration flows," says Frank Laczko, IOM’s Head of Research and Publications. "The overall objective is to contribute towards greater coherence of national migration policies and to promote regional cooperation."

The project was funded through IOM’s 1035 facility, which has supported more than 200 projects in 85 Member States since 2001.

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